Saddle Up But Don't Compete
by jennyxserenity
Summary: Casey is yet another newbie at Canterwood. Coming all the way from London England, everyone is swooned by her beauty, grace, talent, and, well, accent! Casey's roommie is immediately her bff. Heather Fox. Heather, the former head of The Trio. Casey came to Canterwood not to ride, but when she shows extreme talent in show jumping, Mr. Conner convinces her to join the advanced team.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Canterwood Crest. All rights go to Jessica Burkhart.**

Saddle Up But Don't Compete

Chapter 1

After a long tour of campus and a long goodbye, I watched my dad drive down the Canterwood Crest driveway in our shiny, blue, European car from the window of my dorm. I wasn't an emotional type, but I would definitely miss our little family of three. It had been just me, my dad, and my sister. My parents had been divorced for years, and I was pretty much fine with it. My mother was awful, anyway. Always nagging on me to be cleaning, not letting me tell anyone that anything I owned was designer, or simply making me do things I hate doing just for the pleasure of it. That's what it felt like, anyway. So me, Dad, and my sister, Lily, lived in London while Mum lived in Idaho. After the car disappeared, I looked around the spacious dorm. There was three windows, plenty of space, and a huge bathroom. I had gotten all moved in. It looked like my dormmate, Heather, had done plenty of decorating. When I arrived, there was a large supply of DVDs and TV shows, gossip and fashion magazines laid out on the white coffee table, a fuzzy rug in between our beds, turquoise lamps on our nightstands, a swirly chair at both of the desks(one white and one turquoise), and the light wood floors were polished to perfection. I hung paintings of my favorite places in the world. London(of course), Venice, NYC, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Rome, and Vegas. I did a lot of traveling.

The door creaked open and in came a blonde haired girl with several shopping bags.

"You Casey?"

"Heather?"

"That's me." She replied. "Welcome home."

"You're pretty. I like you."

"Well, you've got good taste. Wow. I see you already moved in." she gazed over the dorm. "Looks great."

"Thanks. See all those pictures? I've been to every single one of those places.

"Wow. Sorry I wasn't able to help you. I was shopping."

"I can tell. Isn't it awesome that there are actually places to shop here?" I exclaimed.

"Yes! I have been here for three years. Still not used to it." She let out a laugh. "So…. Do you ride?"

"Yes, but not competitively. I ride for the fun of it."

"Hmm. Did you bring a horse?" she carefully tossed her shopping bags on her bed.

"Mhm. Her name's Lucy. She's a thoroughbred." I said. "Would you like to meet her?"

"Duh!"

I changed out of my shorts and flats and into breeches and boots.

When we reached the stables, I found Lucy's stall and opened the door. I combed my fingers through her exceptionally long, dark gray mane. She had a lighter gray fleabitten coat and had a star on her forehead. There were a few little braids I had braided in for fun a few days ago.

"Impressed?" I smirked.

Heather let Lucy sniff her hand, then rubbed her nose. "Wanna ride?"

"Let's do it."

We tacked up and started out of the stable when we almost rammed into two girls walking in.

"Woah! Watch where you're going LOSERS!" the blonde girl snapped.

"Back off, Julia!" Heather started.

"Yeah. You and your little fake designer boots should just walk away before things get ugly." I snapped back.

"They're Michael Kors." she replied.

"No, they're Michael Michael Kors. Please, I know knock offs when I see them."

The girls scurried off, whispering.

"Huh." Heather said.

"Well, that's that." I said and trotted forward. "You coming?"

"Yeah, yeah." Heather quickly caught up with me. "No one has ever stood up to them."

"Who are they anyway?" I asked.

"Eh… my ex-bestfriends."

"Oh! What happened?"

"Well, I was the leader until Julia blew up at me one day because she was living in my shadow or something. Whatever."

"Ah. So you were a trio?"

"We're _The_ Trio."

"Ah. I see." We entered the downtown-like part of campus and walked our horses in the middle of the street.

A few other riders rode around, also.

"So, who's the head of The Trio now?"

"Julia."

"I mean, like, who completes it? Who's the other third?"

"Oh. Jasmine King. Don't mess with her. She transferred here from Wellington."

"Oh, okay. Ooh, look! A cupcake place!" I said and directed Lucy towards it. I dismounted. "What do you want? I'll go in and you can stay with the horses."

"That's the Sweet Shoppe. I'll have a red velvet cupcake." Heather replied as she dismounted and took a seat at a table right outside the door.

"'Kay."

A chilly breeze swept over me as I entered the shop. A short line waited at the counter. I got in line and waited for it to be my turn. Soon enough, I was first in line.

"Welcome to The Sweet Shoppe, what can I get you?" an overly perky red-head chirped.

"One red velvet cupcake and one coconut cupcake, please. Extra sprinkles."

"Alright, that will be ready in a few minutes! Your total comes to 3.67." she grinned.

In a few minutes, I exited and placed Heather's cupcake on the table in front of her.

"Awesome," she said and began eating her delish delicacy.

"So, what's the latest gossip?" I asked in an excited tone.

"Okay so," Heather began. "You didn't hear this from me, but I heard Julia and Eric are going out, like, can you even believe that? Like, Eric is dating Sasha. What. A. Jerk. Can I just go on a rampage, please? So, like, first Sasha was dating Jacob, then she was dating Eric, but then she was caught kissing Jacob while she was dating Eric but Callie was dating Jacob while Sasha was dating Eric so, like, everyone thought Sasha was trying to steal Callie's boyfriend because she wanted him back but didn't want to hurt Eric. What a two-timer, like, seriously? These boys just need to stop dating! They are causing so much drama.-"

_Buzz_

Heather pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket.

"O.M.G. Guess who Jacob's dating now?! Allison! I follow this account on Twitter, CrestNews, and it posts about all the latest gossip here at Canterwood. You should really check it out."

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and tapped on my Twitter app. I searched CrestNews and tapped 'follow'.

"Followed!" I cheered. "Now, are you gonna eat that cupcake or what?"

An hour later, Heather and I entered the dorm.

"So, what do you want watch?" I asked as I walked over to the TV stand and looked over all the DVDs."I brought tons of stuff. Psych, Jonas LA, Make It Or Break It, Sherlock…"

"Wait, did you just say Sherlock?"

"That I did."

"All three seasons?"

"Try all FOUR seasons!"

"OMG! That's not even out yet!"

"My dad knows a guy who's girlfriend's therapist's cousin knows a guy who knows Demi Lovato's hair stylist's assistant who's worked for an assistant who knows a guy who played an extra in an episode of Sherlock and then became bestfriends with Benedict Cumberbach's bestfriend and got me a copy of the brand new season." I finished with a smirk.

"Wow! You remembered all that?"

"I memorized it."

"Set it up while I make popcorn." Heather said and walked over to the mini kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was an early, sunny Wednesday morning when Heather and I headed to breakfast at the cafeteria. We were dressed in tank tops and flip flops. We sat down with bacon, yogurt, and fresh fruit at a square table near the back of the cafeteria in a corner with few tables and two large windows. School was postponed for another week because of some reason with the teachers that no one cared about, so it was still summer.

"Oh, look! It's Paige and Callie." Heather said. She waved them over.

"Hi," a red-headded girl said.

"Paige, Callie, this is Casey, my new roommie."

"Hi, Casey." They said in unison.

"Hi." I replied.

Callie and Paige took a seat.

"So where are you from?" Callie asked.

"London."

Gasp! " London, England?" Paige exclaimed.

I nodded and flashed a smile.

"Wow, that's so cool!" she continued. "I went there once."

"Did you fancy it?"

"Yes, I fancied it." Paige said and sent us all into giggles. "I got to meet Benedict Cumberbach!"

"What?" I said.

"Oh, yeah, I guess you guys probably don't watch Sherlock."

"I love that show!" Heather, Callie, and I exclaimed.

"You know…. I have the fourth season on DVD." I said. "Maybe we could watch it sometime."

"How did you get that? It's not even out yet!" Callie gawked.

"Long story short, I got a from a long chain of people starting from my dad's friend and ending with Benedict Cumberbach's friend."

"Wow!" Callie replied.

"One time when I was in London…." Paige started.

As Paige talked on and on about her experience in London, I looked towards the doors as they swung open only to see… no…. it couldn't be!

My jaw hung open as Owen Walden entered the cafeteria.

"Casey?" Heather waved her hand in front of my face.

"Hm?" I ripped my eyes away from Owen and onto Heather.

"Checking out the new boy?" Callie suggested.

"That's not just a new boy, that's Owen Walden, he rode for the same stable as me, back in London. Ugh, our parents are really good friends but he is so annoying… of all he riding schools on Earth, how could he come to the same one as me?"

We all looked over at the pale, ginger-haired, freckled-nosed boy.

"He's cute!"

"He's so hot!"

"Wow!"

They each gawked.

"You'll totally hate him when you meet him. Hopefully, you won't have to."

"Well, you said he rides, so we're going to have to." Heather replied. "You said you don't like him, right?"

"Hate. Him."

Then I saw Owen turn his head in our direction. We made brief eye contact before I hid my face behind my hand. I peeked through my fingers at him to see if he was going the be the obnoxious Owen I knew and did not love(or even like) and come on over.

I heard two trays clatter down on the table.

Guess who?

"Casey Meester. I don't believe I've seen you since spring!"

Owen and his roommate.

"Owen!" I said with fake cheerfulness. "What're the chances of you winding up here?"

"Why it quite by chance."

"Wow, you must have really wanted to go to school with me if you chose Canterwood Crest out of all the riding schools on Earth.

"I know everything."

"So you knew I was coming and that's why you came. Wow, you must _love_ me or something."

For the rest of breakfast, I silently ate, trying to ignore Owen blabbering on and on about himself and telling "hilarious" stories. Heather introduced herself and Paige and Callie and Owen introduced himself and his roommate George.

"Well, girls, what do you say we hit up the theater tonight? The brand new Step Up is playing." I suggested.

"That sounds, great." Owen cut in. "We'll join you."

Paige finally snapped out of her fangirling over Owen's "cuteness". "Actually, let's hit up the brand new season Sherlock at Heather and Casey's room."

Owen's blue eyes widened. "The fourth season?" Then he went back to his old, snobby self. "That's not out yet."

"Exactly why it's even cooler to watch it now." I said. "You guys ready to head out?" I asked and stood up with my tray.

"Yeah."

"I'm done."

"Let's go."

We exited the cafeteria without glancing back at Owen and George. I felt bad, though. Poor George.

"Meet at the outdoor pool in twenty minutes?" Paige suggested. We all agreed.

Heather, Callie and I walked back to Orchard.

When we got to our dorm, I changed into my favorite bathing suit – a simple, yellow bikini and through on a blue cover up. I grabbed my Jetset sunglasses and Heather and I headed out. Callie was waiting outside Orchard in a royal purple midkini and white shorts. Together, we walked to the outdoor pool. When we got there, Paige was already laying on a pink and white striped towel reading a book.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted. "There's no one here! Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, it's too early for them. Regular people aren't up at 6:45." Callie said.

We laid out our towels and chatted and giggled.

"So, Casey, what does your dad do?" Paige asked.

"He's a fashion designer…" I mumbled. I didn't want them to think I was a spoiled brat or something.

"Really?" Callie asked. "What's his name?"

"Jonah Meester."

"Oh yeah! His new fall line is FAB." Paige replied. "No wonder you're so stylish!"

I grinned. "Thanks."

"I have a bunch of his designs. I love them all." Heather looked up from her phone. "He's a fashion genius!"

"It's kind of hot." I stood up and looked out at the sparkling, undisturbed water. "I'm so ready to swim."

Everyone agreed. We each grabbed an innertube and hopped in the pool. I think the lifeguard sensed that the fun was finally beginning because he cranked the radio way up.

"Wanna have a race?" I asked. "From that end of the pool to the other."

"Oh, it's on." Heather replied.

We swam to the end of the pool. On three, we pushed off the wall and pathetically doggy paddled inside our innertubes. I pushed the water back behind me, making quick, swift movements. I plowed through, splashing water behind me all over Heather, making it harder for her to see where she was going.

"Ha! Eat my dust!"

The end of the pool was fifteen yards away. I knew I was going to make it. No doubt about it. Almost there…. A splash of water fell on top of me, soaking my blonde locks and a determined Heather doggy paddled past me with great speed. Heather smacked the wall with her palm and jumped out of her innertube.

"I win!" she cheered. "I am awesome! Bow down to your awesome queen!"

I pretended to curtsy, and Callie and Paige curtsied from the end of the pool.

"Diving board next." I suggested. I knew I could win at that. I had taken dance/tumbling all my life and I was flexible. Like, really flexible. Ha.

We all sauntered over to the diving board.

"Let's score each other on our jumps." Heather said.

"I'll be the judge." Paige offered.

Callie climbed the short ladder. She walked to the end of the board, took a deep breath and flipped off.

"Impressive!" Paige cheered. "7.5."

Heather was next. She did a flawless inside out dive.

"Wow, cool trick! 9."

My turn. I climbed up onto the board. I bounced on it for a few moments and jumped into a split jete turn (aka centersplits in the air and then you spin). I splashed into the water and bubbled up to the surface. Even the lifeguard was cheering. Wow.

"Wow! 10 out of 10!"

"Wow, that was super good!" Heather complimented.

"Thanks," I tucked a piece of wet hair behind my ear.


End file.
